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Six Video Games that are Exactly like Computer Programming

Well
this is an offbeat idea for an article but here we’re going to look at seven
video games that are so similar to web development that if you’re pro at these
games, then you might as well consider yourself a master programmer already. (Well
not really. Can’t you tell what sarcasm is?)

6. League of Legends

League of Legends is a competitive team-based arena or “MOBA”.
If you haven’t heard of League of Legends then well, I’m guessing you haven’t
been on Twitch for the last eight years. League of Legends is a team based game
so the better you synergise with your team mates the better you will perform. I
could have picked any team game, but the point I’m trying to make is that
computer programming is a social activity, so learning to work with your peers
is a must-have skill.

5. Contra 3: The Alien Wars

Contra 3: The Alien Wars is a really, really hard game to
complete because of how many bullets are flying everywhere and how stingey the
game is with handing out extra lives. The only way to get better at Contra is
to just sit down and die over and over until you learn the patterns and you
make it to the next stage. That’s just the experience developers have when they
create an application. It takes a long time to make a small part of an
application and it takes a long time to get rid of annoying bugs when they pop
up.

Definitely the most action packed game on this list.

4. Colossal Cave Adventure

Colossal Cave Adventure (1977) is considered the precursor
to modern text-based games. It was released on the PDP-10 family of computers (Yeah
I don’t know what those are either). The game works with only text so you have
to fight monsters and solve puzzles by entering one or two-word commands for
your character. You have to keep in mind things like your character’s inventory
and the world around you. These are abstract concepts, so having a good
understanding of the game is essential. That’s just like computer programming
because you also have to have a good understanding of abstract concepts like
objects, variables, loops, HTML tags and so on. You can’t see any of these
things so you often need to read documentation, Stack Overflow, or ask more
experienced programmers to overcome challenges.

3. Minesweeper

Minesweeper is a puzzle game that was pre-installed on every
Windows computer back in the 90’s and 2000’s. To beat Minesweeper you need to
fill in every tile on the grid without filling in the bombs. You need to fill
them in strategically because if you make a mistake and click on a bomb, everything
blows up and you have to start all over again. This is much like computer
programming because one error somewhere in your code causes the whole thing to
not work! Therefore, you need to make sure all the pieces in your code fit
together properly. The exception to this is HTML and CSS because HTML/CSS doesn’t
have errors per se. You’ll still have to make sure your code is correct if you
want your web pages to look the way you want, though.

2. Code Combat

There are many games that specifically try to teach code and
one such game is Code Combat. This is an RPG type of game which has the gimmick
where you have to write an algorithm which your hero will follow and you can
command them to move, say things, or attack enemies. When I tried Code Combat I
wasn’t a fan of it because I thought I was supposed to be playing a puzzle
teaching kind of game, not some kind of RPG where you have to get gems and
upgrade your gear and stuff like that. I’d give this game a pass but it’s free
to play if you want to play it, I guess.

1. IRL

twitch.tv/irl is a space where streamers can talk about whatever they like, as opposed to the rest of Twitch which is mainly a platform for streaming video games. Naturally, you never know what you can expect while watching IRL. Video games are predictable; There is no game that truly has limitless content so when playing these games, you end up having the same experience. Computer programming isn’t like that because technology is always changing and new languages are being developed. Popular languages today like Python and Javascript might not be relevant in ten years. It’s up to the developer to make sure they’re knowledgeable with new technologies or at least keep up with development trends.